


A Year In The Life Of Laurel Lance

by AlwaysSpeaksHerMind



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Neighbors, halloween fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 17:17:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11318031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysSpeaksHerMind/pseuds/AlwaysSpeaksHerMind
Summary: Laurel Lance gets free of Starling City and moves to Central City, where she meets Cisco Ramon, her neighbor across the hall.(Prompt: Cisco/Laurel: Laurel moves to Central City AU).





	A Year In The Life Of Laurel Lance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isloremipsumafterall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isloremipsumafterall/gifts).



**Summer: Close Encounters of the Stair Kind**

The first time she saw him was the day she moved in.

For three hours, she’d been carting boxes up a stairway so narrow that two wiener dogs would’ve found walking abreast a tight fit. She was sweaty, exhausted, and heartily wishing that she hadn’t turned down all offers of help with jokes about needing a good workout. Her mother had volunteered, eagerly even, but Laurel had refused and cited daughterly independence. The truth was that she just didn’t feel like talking to anyone at the moment. Leaving Starling City in her dust was the right decision. She knew that. Knew it like she knew the sky was blue, like she knew water was wet. As much as her heart ached for her old home, the reality was that you couldn’t save a place if it didn’t want to _be_ saved. Not without losing yourself in the process, and Laurel was done giving her all to a city whose darkness poisoned everyone in it. If she didn’t leave now, she never would.

All the same, it hurt. It felt a little like giving up, something Dinah Laurel Lance had never once done—not in school, not in law school, not in life. But there was no point in self-pity, so she took a deep breath, swiped the edge of her tank top over her dripping forehead, and grabbed the last few boxes.

Halfway up the third and final flight, she heard a door slam and peeked around her armload of cardboard cubes to see a longhaired guy galloping down the stairs toward her. He was drinking a bright blue slushie at a speed sure to induce brain freeze and staring at a phone like his life depended on it.

Most importantly, however, he was apparently oblivious to the presence of other human beings and about to crash right into her.

“Hey, you mind?” Laurel ground out through clenched teeth when he showed no signs of slowing. “Woman on a mission, here.”

“Say what? Oh.” He jumped. “Ooh, boxes. Lots of boxes. Hey, sorry. I’ll get out of—” He stopped, his head swiveling back and forth between the walls. “Yeah, gotcha. This place is like the trash compacter on the Death Star, am I right?”

Laurel heaved a sigh. “Sure,” she said, catching a glimpse of his _Keep Calm and Klingon_ t-shirt and wondering if she was missing something. Klingons were from _Star Trek,_ weren’t they? And _Star Wars_ and _Star Trek_ were supposed to be mutually exclusive or something, weren’t they? “Look, these are kind of heavy, so could you back up a minute, please?”

“Oh, yeah. Actually, uh…” He paused, one step away from the upper landing. “Do you want some help? Cause I could—”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve got it,” Laurel told him, thinking that she could probably lift him easier than he could carry one of her bulky boxes. “Besides, your hands are already full.” A small smirk crossed her face as she saw the screen. “And Candy Crush won’t play itself.”

His eyes narrowed. “Whoa, whoa, _whoa._ Are you dissing Candy Crush? Candy _Crush?_ ”

She laughed, moving past him to dump the boxes in her open doorway. “Yeah, as a matter of fact, I am,” she replied, straightening up and crossing her arms. “You want to play a real game on your phone, you play Angry Birds.”

“Hmm.” He took a loud slurp of slushie. “Interesting.” Tucking his phone into the crook of his arm, he stuck out a hand. “Cisco Ramon.”

“Laurel Lance.”

 

 

 

**Autumn: _No_ cus Pocus**

“No. Sorry. It’s not happening.”

“Oh, come on.” Cisco lifted the visor of his Darth Vader helmet and glared at her. “It’s going to be dark soon, and there are going to be hordes of small children dressed in adorable and frightening costumes descending on this building in less than thirty minutes! You can _not_ answer the door dressed in sweatpants. Do you really want to disappoint Millie from downstairs? She told all her friends to come, and it wasn’t just because of the caramel apples. They’re expecting something awesome!”

“Hey.” Laurel shrugged, pinching her lips together to keep from laughing at his outrage. “Maybe this is my Meg Ryan in _You’ve Got Mail_ costume. Did you ever consider that? _Maybe_ I’m dressed as Sick Kathleen Kelly, and you’re just not savvy enough to recognize it.” She tsked. “And you have the nerve to call yourself a film buff. I’m truly embarrassed for you, Cisco.”

“Uh-huh.” He eyed her skeptically. “Nice try. But maybe _I’m_ just going to tell every tiny goblin, witch, superhero, Disney character, or famous historical figure who comes to the door looking for sugary goodness that _someone_ is the biggest party pooper in Central City. Huh? How ‘bout that?”

“I told you.” She pretended to ignore him, faking a yawn as she flipped through the pages of the book in her lap. “Distributing candy with me is a bad idea. I haven’t dressed up in years.” _Not since I left Starling City,_ her brain whispered, but she quickly winged that thought away. That wasn’t the same kind of dress-up at all.

“Yeah! And do you realize how sad that is?” Cisco pointed a chocolate bar at her. “Oh, nuh-uh, wait. Never mind. I know what the problem is.”

“Do you?” The smirk she gave him really couldn’t be helped; taking anyone in a Darth Vader costume seriously was difficult for her under normal circumstances. Taking a scolding Cisco Ramon in a Darth Vader costume seriously was next to impossible.

He nodded, eyes narrowing. “You’re a Halloween snob, Laurel Lance. That’s what you are.”

“Oh, am I?” Quirking a brow, she reached over for the STAR Labs coffee mug she’d semi-appropriated from his extensive mug collection and took a sip. “Do tell, Francisco.”

“Yup. That’s it, all right.” He shook his head, clucking like a disapproving parent. “A Halloween snob. You just can’t handle the thought of sitting out in the patch and waiting for the Great Pumpkin, can you?”

“What?” she laughed out. “How is that relevant?”

“Aha! She attempts to evade the question.” This time, he pointed the red plastic lightsaber at her. “You fear feeling like a fool, young Jedi.”

She cocked her head. “I fear nothing,” she retorted, already knowing what he was going to say.

His eyes gleamed. “Prove it.”

Oh, yeah. She had him pegged.

“You know what?” She sat up, shutting her book with a snap. “I will. Hold that thought.”

Without waiting for a reply, she pushed herself up off the sofa and headed into her bedroom. A few minutes of digging through the back of her closet later, and she had what she was looking for: an old white blouse, her high school graduation gown and a clip-on tie she’d bought as a joke and never worn. Dressing quickly, she grabbed her brush off its spot on the nightstand and began teasing her long hair until it reached unmistakably fluffy heights.

“All right,” she announced, marching back into the living room. “Get me a pencil, and I’m ready to meet the greedy masses.”

Cisco turned around, his mouth forming a perfectly-round _O_ when he saw her. “Whoa! Is that—are you…?”

“Yes.” Laurel held her arms out. “I’m Hermione Granger,” she intoned in a halfway decent British accent. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen my wand lying anywhere about, have you?”

To her surprise, his face broke into a big smile. “As a matter of fact…”

She groaned, then started laughing as a certain half-forgotten story he’d once told her came to mind. “The Harry Potter convention. Of course.”

“Well, _duh_! You’re not dealing with some kind of amateur, you know. I’ve got a collection that would do Ollivander’s proud.” Swirling his cape dramatically, he bowed low from the waist. “Ms. Granger.”

“Lord Vader.” Stifling another laugh, Laurel followed him across the hall to his apartment. “I feel compelled to state that I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she commented, closing the door behind them. “I mean, costumes on Halloween? I could very well be letting you steer me down a dark path.”

“Oh, please.” He waved a hand. “No one caves to the siren call of costumes unless they want to. You know you love it.”

_Yes,_ she thought, smiling fondly at the back of his head as he raced into his bedroom, cape fluttering in a breeze of his own creation. There was a very good chance she did.

 

 

 

**Winter: A Christmas Story**

Laurel leaned her head against the couch, stifling a sigh. When her parents had begun trying to rekindle the romance, she’d been all for it. A holiday couples’ retreat down in Cabo seemed like just the thing they needed, and she’d insisted they go. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to her to consider how their being gone might affect her. Now, watching the thick, furry snowflakes drift past her window, a wretched, unfamiliar loneliness seeped into her. Several coworkers and a few old friends from Starling City had invited her to various parties, but she’d turned them all down. Even if she sat in her dark apartment by herself, alternating wine and eggnog for the entire rest of the holidays, it would be better than plastering on fake smiles and making small-talk with people she barely knew, or venturing back to a place where the good memories were all buried beneath the bad. Central City was her home now, and leaving it felt wrong.

Still, she had to admit that home was looking pretty barren at the moment. The entire city, so it seemed, was with family and friends. Cisco was at a family dinner. Caitlin and Ronnie, the engaged friends Cisco had introduced her to, were out of town, spending the holidays with Ronnie’s family. The family who lived below her were celebrating with grandparents and cousins, and even the gruff and cantankerous postman had announced that he would be gone visiting his children. And at this hour on Christmas Eve, just about everything was closed down. Silence blanketed the world as heavily as snow, and without really deciding to do it, she dug out her old photo album and began flipping through the pages. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she relived happy, smiling, bygone Christmases until finally, she threw the thing across the room and curled up on the sofa, covering her eyes. How long she laid there, taking deep, shuddering breaths, she never knew. A knock on the door woke her, and she sat up to find the room darker than ever, the last shreds of daylight gone.

“Just a second,” she called. Her knees popped as she stood, the joints stiff from her cramped position. “I’m coming.”

Hurrying to the door, she pressed her eye to the peephole. The hall didn’t have the best lighting, but even so, she had no trouble recognizing her visitor.

“Cisco, what are you doing here?” she demanded, removing the chain. “I thought you were at your family’s?”

“I was,” his muffled voice answered. “But it got a little, shall we say, _crowded,_ so I decided to call it a night.”

“Why?” Laurel swung the door open to find him slumped against the wall. “Oh, God. What happened?” He didn’t talk much about his family, but he’d told her before that there was a lot of friction between him and his brother. “Dante?”

He nodded morosely. “Cain and Abel. Fredo and Michael. Boromir and Faramir. Mufasa and Scar. Need I say more?”

“No.” She stepped back, silently inviting him in. “I’m sorry it didn’t go well.”

“Eh, it’s fine. Besides, that’s not the only reason I left.” He held up a greasy paper bag. “Big Belly Burger?”

Laurel raised her eyebrows. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope.” He grinned cheerfully. “They are _still_ open! The miracle of burger joints, huh?”

“Yeah, no joke.” She peered into the bag, smiling when she saw the contents. “How’d you know I wanted a cheeseburger and double fries?”

“Because on a night like this, everybody wants a cheeseburger and double fries,” he responded loftily, shutting the door behind them. “Whoa, nelly!” he added, spinning in a circle. “It’s getting _dark_ up in here! What happened to your tree?”

She waved a hand toward a corner of her living room as she headed back toward the sitting area. “Thar she blows. I just haven’t plugged it in yet.”

He frowned. “Why not?”

“Oh, you know.” She raised a shoulder. “Busy napping.”

“Uh- _huh._ ” On his way to plug in the tree, he glanced at the coffee table where her wine bottle and an empty eggnog carton sat next to her food. “Laurel, are you okay?” he asked, concern written all over his face.

She laughed, sitting cross-legged on the carpet as she rooted through the paper bag for ketchup. “Yes, I’m fine.” It might not be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but it wasn’t a lie. A moment of weakness wasn’t anything to panic over. “You shouldn’t worry about me.”

“I know.” He came over to join her at the little table, the room now aglow with warm prickles of colored light. “I kind of do anyway, though.”

“Aww.” She said it teasingly, but a lump rose in her throat all the same. He was so sweet sometimes that it caught her off guard, and she was never quite sure how to respond. “Just for that, you get to pick what we watch.”

He accepted the remote she offered with some suspicious side-eyeing. “Okay. You don’t want to talk about it. I get it.”

Tossing back a French fry, she smirked. “I admit nothing.”

“Oh, really? Pleading the fifth, Lawyer Woman?”

“You’d better believe it,” she answered, scooting back to lean against the couch. “Now. Choose _wisely_.”

“Hah. Yep,” he said, his mouth full. “ _Last Crusade._ That one deserves a high five. Put ‘er there.”

Laurel reached over and slapped her hand across his. “Thanks. Now, seriously—choose, or I take the remote back and we watch the shopping channel until our eyes bleed or we start thinking buying ugly sweaters is a good idea. Whichever comes first.”

“All _right._ ” He snatched the remote away from her pretended grab. “You know, I’m starting to think the Grinch is a real good choice?”

“Watch it, buster.” She shook a fry at him threateningly. “Get too sassy on me and I will evict you from the premises, Big Belly Burger or no Big Belly Burger.”

“Yup.” He nodded. “ _Definitely_ the Grinch.”

“Whatever.” She gave him a light shove, making them both laugh. “Oh, hey! Hold on,” she added, jumping up and climbing over the back of the couch. “Here,” she said, plunking an unopened carton of eggnog down on the coffee table. “Who’s a Grinch now?”

“Fine, not you,” he joked. “But take notes, mmkay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure thing, Max.”

 It was funny, she thought, how sarcasm inevitably fell from her lips right when she most wanted to hug him. So to make up for it, she didn’t say a word when _How The Grinch Stole Christmas_ morphed into _Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,_ which morphed into _Home Alone,_ which morphed into _Miracle On 34 th Street. _And if they spent the whole night passing the carton of eggnog back and forth between them and woke up the next morning propped against each other, she wasn’t going to say anything about that either.

 

 

 

**Spring: Confessions of A Sleepless Mind**

“Laurel?” Cisco blinked sleepily at her, hanging onto his doorknob in a way that made her fear he might fall over. “What’s up? It’s like—dead of night o’clock, right now.”

“I know.”

Gripping the edge of the doorframe, she drew a deep breath. It had been several months now since the particle accelerator over at STAR Labs had exploded, and she didn’t think she could keep the pretense up one second longer. She’d allowed herself to hope that she’d been unaffected—after all, nearly everyone in the city seemed to have a story about a cloud of energy rushing through them, and only a few appeared to show any aftereffects—but her suspicions had been confirmed about three weeks after the malfunction. And she had to tell someone. No, not someone—him. She had to tell him.

“Can I come in?” she asked, wrapping her arms around herself. It was a pathetic attempt to ward off the chill she felt in the very marrow of her bones, but she didn’t care. If nothing else, it at least offered a small level of comfort. “I’m sorry. I just…”

“Yeah, sure,” he answered, tucking some hair behind his ear and stepping back to let her in. “Laurel, what’s wrong?”

She released a slow, unsteady breath. Pushing the door shut, she rested her forehead against it for a moment. _Just say it. Just show him._

“The particle accelerator,” she said abruptly. Spinning around, she motioned for him to back up. “I wasn’t at home when it went off like I told you I was.”

“What?” He stared at her, his dark eyes seeming bigger than usual. “What do you mean?”

“I was affected.” Her voice hardened, and she could feel the scream threatening to break out. But if she wanted to keep them safe—keep _him_ safe _—_ she couldn’t let it.

He swallowed. “A-affected how?”

Involuntarily, her hand moved to her throat, feeling for a collar that was no longer there. No longer _necessary._

“Affected like this,” she said quietly. Opening her mouth, she released what felt like barely a whisper and shattered the drinking glass on the table. “I didn’t tell you,” she murmured, forcing herself to stay calm even as she felt the tears begin to threaten, “but back in Starling City…I wasn’t just an attorney. I had a night job, too.”

“You were the Black Canary.”

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded anyway. “I wasn’t going to do any of that ever again. I was _done._ But I went for a walk—on a whim, too—and someone needed help.” The furniture she’d been staring at grew blurry, and, furious with herself, she dashed the tears from her eyes. “It was this kid. She was just a teenager, and she was so scared. She ran off, and then I screamed, and right when I screamed, the cloud just—”

“Yeah.” Cisco’s voice was quiet, strained. “I remember.”

She pressed the heels of her hands into her forehead, closing her eyes for a second or two. “The device that amplifies my voice—it fused to me somehow. Or the power did, at any rate. I didn’t tell you because—”

“Because you kept hoping it was a mistake,” he finished. “That you’d get better.”

“Yes.” Laurel lifted her head, frowning. “How did you know?”

His smile was wry. “Because.” Stepping toward her, he reached out and took her hand, his fingers interlocking with hers. “That’s exactly what I’ve been doing, too.”

 

 

 

**Summer (Again): One Year Later**

Maybe it was the way he smiled at her. Maybe it was the way he made movie references right in the middle of battling opponents with impossible abilities, or practically stammered with excitement every time she used some fighting technique he’d never seen before. More than likely though, it was the way he always had her back. No matter when, no matter where, no matter what they were doing, whether it was fighting to save the city or trying out some new video game, she knew she could count on him. He was probably the last person on earth she would ever have expected to like, let alone love, yet somehow, it made perfect sense. So when one day, during a routine foiling of a bank robbery, he got thrown into a wall by an extra-strong metahuman, she didn’t hesitate. Felling the masked brutes with a shrill cry, she dashed over to him, her relief at finding him alive leading her to lean down and press her lips to his, regardless of every single gawker in the area.

And if next day, every news story in the city featured photographs of Black Canary kissing Vibe in the middle of a Central City bank, what did it matter? This was her life now. Her crazy, mile-a-minute, laughs-aplenty life, full of warmth and love and wacky heroics, and a movie-quoting tech genius who could open portals into other worlds and light up an entire room with his smile.

She didn’t know how it had all happened—she only knew that it had.

And that was more than enough for her.

**Author's Note:**

> To isloremipsumafterall: I have absolutely no idea if this is what you had in mind when you said AU or not, so I tried to keep some canon similarity while making the timeline sort of vague. My sincerest apologies if this is way off base!
> 
> Also: I can honestly say I've never thought about a Laurel/Cisco pairing before I saw this prompt. It was really fun to play with these characters :)


End file.
